European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde presents the bank’s 2024 Annual Report to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on February 10, 2025. (Photo by FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP)
The President of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, has stressed the need for central banks across the world to maintain their independence amid growing political and economic pressures.
Speaking on Thursday at a conference in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Lagarde said the challenge facing monetary institutions was no longer just how to guarantee independence, but how to protect it when tested.
“The question is no longer simply how to guarantee independence,” she said. “It is how to protect it when it is put to the test.”
Lagarde noted that central banks in emerging markets and developing economies had long operated under more difficult conditions and said developed economies could learn from their experiences.
